Sacrificing It All
by Kry
Summary: What would have happened if Tifa had died in Aeris's place? Cloud/Tifa, R&R!


Alright, I know this has been done a few times before, but it's an interesting plot! ^_^ What would've happened if Tifa had died instead of Aeris? Read on to find out!

Copyrights: I really don't think that this is absolutely necessary all the time, but I don't wanna get sued . Would you? I don't have any money anyways! FFVII and/or any of the characters don't belong to me!! They're (c) SquareSoft. That means they aren't mine, though I wish they were! ^-^

Right, on with the fic!

He watched her as he approached, a perfect angel upon the altar. Head bowed, hands clasped as she prayed for Holy. To save her friends. To save herself. To save the planet.

"Aeris.." Cloud murmured. He stepped out onto one of the small platforms that would lead him to her. Yuffie walked up behind him, stoutly ready to follow his lead. He turned to look at her, held up his hand and shook his head in a silent message. _Let me go alone_. She nodded slightly and backed off to stand beside a concerned Tifa.

Cloud hopped from platform to platform until he was finally on level with her, and smiled. _Aeris,_ he thought, _you don't have to do this alone. We're in this together. We're all here now, to help.._

The blonde warrior's thoughts were interrupted as he felt his body stiffen, then go rigid. He stood on tiptoe for a short moment, as if someone had snuck up behind him and pulled the tender hairs on the back of his neck. Pain seared through his head, so much that it caused him to be blinded temporarily.

He knew this feeling. It was Sephiroth. It always was.

Cloud soon recovered his vision. He felt himself reach for his sword's sheath, grasp the handle and slowly draw it.

_What the hell am I doing?!_

He began to advance upon her, with slow, struggled steps, fighting every inch of the way. His hands grasped the sword hilt so hard that his knuckles turned white. And here she was, a few feet away from him, head bowed in prayer. So trusting. Perfectly innocent. 

_No!_ he though desparately as he raised the sword above his head, ready to strike. _No! No,This isn't happening! Sephiroth, you sorry bastard.._

"Cloud!" A shocked voice ripped through his thoughts as if they were paper. Tifa's. It gave him the strength to fight, a stronger will. Tifa often had that effect over him. He broke from his enemie's control and lowered his sword. Taking a step back, he shook his head violently as if to rid it of something or someone.

Down below the scene, Tifa allowed a quick sigh of relief. Aeris was safe. She glanced up, about to thank the heavens, and froze. There was Sephiroth, levitating above them as he watched. A second later he turned his head in her direction and smirked victoriously. Positioning his masamune downward, he began to let himself drop.

"Aeris!!" Tifa screamed in terror. Her body began rushing forward without her mind's consent. She leapt the platforms as quickly as she could. She had to save Aeris. Her best friend! She had to save her. It was inexplainable. She just had to.

Before she knew it, Tifa was pushing past a petrified Cloud at an almost superhuman speed. "Aeris, please no!" Sephiroth was nearly on her! The woman's mind was numb with horror. She shoved Aeris bodily aside, sending her sprawling from the danger. 

Tifa gasped as she watched Sephiroth's sword growing from her chest. Even then, she knew it was fatal - he had stabbed her right through the heart. Slowly it retreated back through her body and out of her back, the needle sharp tip drawn from her crimson-stained clothing. Sephiroth looked up at Aeris, who had been watching in a state of horrified petrification, much like Cloud. '_Next time_.' His lips formed the words as he narrowed his turquoise eyes in a confident smirk. Then he arose towards the heavens, and was gone.

"Tifa!!" Cloud suddenly found himself able to move again. He rushed to her side and rested her back and head in his lap, looking into her beautiful, kind, crimson eyes, frantically searching her face for an answer. "Tifa.."

"Cloud...I.." Her slender hand reached to brush his cheek, and the power of speech left her. _..Love you.._ Her hand dropped, halfway to his skin, as her chest ceased to rise, her body fell still and her eyelids fluttered closed, never again to open.

Cloud reached for her hand and held it against his cheek, striving for the smallest scrap of comfort. He merely sat like that for several minutes as his eyes glazed over, not noticing Yuffie desparately shaking him, or Aeris calling his name.

For some reason or another, Cloud had always thought that Tifa would be with him, there for him. She always had, right from their childhood - maybe that was why he assumed she always would be. She was his constant companion, a friendly face in a foreign land. A comfort in times of trouble and strife. His best friend. His.. his love?

Realization dawned, clear as a bright afternoon after a long morning of thick fog. His love. He loved her. All along, he had loved her. And now, he realized, she had loved him too. Was that why she would sometimes catch him in an awkward moment, about to say something - but hesitate, back off? _Tifa.._ he thought brokenly. _I'm so sorry.._ It was like a slap in the face.

Cloud blinked slowly, feeling a burning sensation on his left cheek. He actually _had_ been slapped in the face. Looking up, he met Yuffie's bright, teared eyes.

"Cloud! We.."

She broke off and took a step back. Any sort of aggression, anger, or annoyance vanished from her face as she saw his eyes. They were hollow. Almost emotionless, as the rest of his face. Broken windows to his soul.. But somehow she knew how badly he was hurting behind that mask.

However, now was not the time to ponder this. Yuffie winced as she felt Jenova's _Blue Light_ attack sear through her again. Yes, that monster was here, now - she had appeared in much the same manner as Sephiroth. Out of nowhere.

The young ninja wrenched Cloud upright and cautioned a glance back to Aeris, who was attempting to fight Jenova solo while Yuffie retrieved Cloud. "_Fire 3_!" The air cackled and cracked like a mad thing as glowing red spots began to appear around the monster, only to vanish in an awe-inspiring explosion. A short wave of heat washed over them, then cooled as Jenova's _Aqualung_ bubbled around them.

Cloud seemed to have regained his senses. He rushed to the battle spot with Yuffie. They chipped away at their opponent's HP, and she theirs. Aeris kept them going with a good Regen. Pain seared through Cloud's body again as he mindlessly covered for Aeris when Jenova attempted yet another _Blue Light_.

He felt his limit top and break in the same second. He uttered but a single growl: "_Meteorain!_" Cloud rose into the air and meteors sprouted from his sword tip, battering down on Jenova like a wind-driven rain. That ended their battle completely. Jenova let loose an unearthly shriek, and vanished slowly into a swirling red light.

Aeris immediately turned to Yuffie, her eyes shining wetly. "It should have been me," she whispered hoarsely. "It's my fault.. she's gone.." She cried into her friend's shoulder. Yuffie awkwardly comforted her, and for once her mind had left herself and all her materia to care for something much more deep.

Cloud mechanically sheathed his sword. Quietly he approached Tifa's prone form and carefully picked her up. With slow, measured steps, he left the City of the Ancients. 

Aeris and Yuffie followed faithfully, sobbing. But their leader's grief was beyond tears.

------

**Three months later.**

------

Cloud approached a small gravestone embedded carefully into the ground of a hilled crest that boasted of a breathtaking veiw of Mt. Nibel and the lands beyond. The grass was fertile, and several different wild flowers thrived. She would have liked it there - the only reason Cloud had chosen this spot. He knelt to the grass and placed a beautiful boquet of flowers on top of her grave. Standing up, he gazed at the gravestone with his hands in his pockets.

"Hi, Teef," he began. "I'm sorry it's been a few weeks since I've talked to you. A lot has been going on, I hope you can forgive me. We're back on Sephiroth's trail again, but I can tell you about that later. We don't know much yet.

"We've been running all around the planet, hunting for chocobos. Did you know? We finally figured out how to breed them and get the right results. Just last week, we got a golden chocobo! She's wonderful. Yesterday she won a ton of things at the tracks at the Gold Saucer for us. I named her Angel, like you always wanted," he said. A stray tear trickled down his cheek, and he made no attempt to brush it off.

"You probably know I've been moping about now for a while," he admitted with a sigh. "I know you don't like it, but it's so hard to move on." Cloud paused. "I'm going to though. For you. Like you used to say, the sun's going to come up tomorrow whether I like it or not. I just have to face the challenges the day brings." He lapsed into silence and watched the countryside, still standing before the gravestone. Before long, Aeris's gentle voice hailed him.

"Cloud.. it's time." He looked at the hill behind him, beyond which his friends waited for him. "Alright," he called back to her.

He crouched beside the gravestone. "Well, I guess this is goodbye for now. I'll see you next week," he promised. "I love you. Don't you ever forget it."

Cloud kissed his fingertips and touched them to the stone, then walked down the hill. As he crested the hill and saw his friends, he smiled.

And somewhere, up in the heavens, he felt Tifa smiling with him.

Alright, it was kinda 'mushy', but I'm such a sucker for those things. I started to cry while I was writing it, but I'm a very emotional person =) I originally planned it to be Cloud/Aeris, but the fanfic just writes it self, you know? ^-^ Oh, and sorry for writing a battle scene, I've read that some people don't like 'em. x.x Reviews are warmly welcomed! This is my first FFVII fanfic, so please be gentle =)


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